London's Daily Mail reports that the valuable pottery found by Korean fisherman Kim Yong-Chul is 900 years old, dating to the Koryo Dynasty, which ruled the Korean peninsula in the 12th century. The chance discovery is being lauded as one of the greatest undersea treasure finds of modern times.
Kim, 58, explains that on this fateful day his fishing trip for webfoot octopus--a delicacy in Korea--began like any other; however, this time he decided to try a new spot a few miles south of where he regularly fished. After he cast his line, he felt the familiar tug and pulled up an octopus. It was an odd-looking creature with what appeared at first to be bits of blue shells attached to its tentacles. But when Kim examined them further, he realized they weren't shells at all but rather pieces of pottery.
He kept fishing, having no clue that what he just found was a treasure. Maybe that was a good thing. Kim caught another octopus, and this one had a whole plate caught in its tentacles. Now Kim knew something big was down there. When he returned to the shore, Kim contacted the National Maritime Museum in Seoul. Officials were dispatched to examine the haul.
"'You can imagine just how excited we were when we studied the bits and pieces as well as the virtually perfect plate," Mun Hwan-Seok, a museum official, told the Daily Mail. "We arranged for an urgent exploration of the seabed and although we did not find a ship down there, we were able to find 30 12th century bowls. It seems that a ship carrying Koryo pottery was wrecked there, and what excites us is that these pieces are perfect examples of beautiful Koryo pottery. A large number of kilns were established in the area, and the ship must have been transporting the pieces when it went down." He added, "Although other ships have been found and pottery recovered, this is the first time a family of octopus has found a wreck for us." Many of the pottery shards were decorated with chrysanthemum or vine patterns.
"Before I set off in my boat, I had a dream the night before of being in the water swimming," Kim told the Daily Mail. "Such dreams are supposed to bring luck, so this one turned out to be true."
--From the Editors at Netscape
